A NEW AWARD

In mid-October I went to Las Vegas for the 35th anniversary meeting of the American College for the Advancement of Medicine (ACAM), one of the largest and most significant groups in the field of complementary medicine. The topic of the meeting was integrative oncology. On Saturday, I gave the keynote address and afterwards was presented with the 2008 Denham Harman Award. Denham Harman (born February 14, 1916), MD, PhD, is Professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and widely known as the "father of the free radical theory of aging." It is a great honor for me to receive this award. I hope to write more about the significance of this ACAM meeting in future issues of this newsletter.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BEARD

Today, November 2, 2008, is the 150th anniversary of the birth of John Beard. The name may not mean much to you: after all, there are five John Beards in the Wikipedia, but none of them is this particular Beard. "Our" John Beard was a British embryologist who devised the trophoblastic theory of cancer and its offshoot, enzyme therapy. I have long been fascinated with his work and have written about him from time to time. In July 2007, when I realized the sesquicentenary of his birth was looming, I wrote to the editors of Integrative Cancer Therapies, suggesting a special issue in Beard's honor. They had just done a special issue on milk thistle, which had turned out well, and so they accepted my suggestion and invited me to be guest editor. Now, 350 emails and almost as many drafts later, the issue is about to appear. It will be the first time a peer-reviewed, PubMed-listed medical journal has ever focused entirely on Beard's life and work.

The issue - volume 7, number 4 - will be published in a few days. The biggest problem in accessing it, as with most medical journals these days, is the price. A single print issue costs $50. An individual subscription is $155.

Very soon, abstracts of the article will start appearing in PubMed, the online database of medical journal articles. For the time being, however, the only way that one can see more than the abstracts is to buy the issue or subscribe. I hope, sometime in the coming year, to present this same information in a more accessible (and less expensive) format. But if you have the means and interest, I encourage you to subscribe to I.C.T. After all, not many peer-reviewed journals would agree to take on this type of project and see it to completion with a very high level of professionalism.

What is in this special issue? As guest editor, I had certain goals for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

• I wanted to tell the story of John Beard's life in an accurate and interesting way, with an additional timeline of events.
• I wanted to document the evolution of his written work with the first complete bibliography ever compiled of his more than 100 scientific articles.
• I wanted to tell what happened to his ideas - especially the enzyme treatment of cancer - from the time of his death in December, 1924 to the present-day.

And that's exactly what I have done. In doing so, I believe I have cleared up many of the mysteries about who John Beard was, and corrected some long-standing misconceptions about the man and his life. Of course, I had some resources that were not available to earlier writers. Not only am I within driving distance of one of the world's greatest medical collections, the U.S. National Library of Medicine, I also had the benefit of some new and powerful online research tools.

Equally important, however, are the four articles that I commissioned from other scholars. I wanted to cover the full scope of modern research on Beard's thinking. The way I did this was to solicit articles on the following:

1. The theoretical aspects of Beard's ideas on trophoblasts and how they relate to modern-day theories of primordial germ cells, from Angela Burleigh of British Columbia Cancer Research Centre, Vancouver BC, V5Z 1L3, Canada
2. Basic cell-line research on the effects of proenzymes on cancer cells, from Josef Novak, PhD, of the Joan Holmes Memorial Research Laboratory of Bucknell University, PA
3. Animal studies on enzymes and cancer from Martin Wald, MD, of Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
4. Human clinical trials on an integrative program including enzymes from Josef Beuth, MD, of the University of Cologne, Germany

In addition, Keith Block MD, editor-in-chief of Integrative Cancer Therapies, has provided an illuminating introduction. In this way, we "covered the waterfront" of concerns from the theoretical to the highly practical question of what effect dietary enzymes actually have on cancer patients. Our contributors are all reputable academic researchers at major institutions. It was also important to me that they hail from four different countries, showing the international nature of this work.

It has been a great pleasure and a true labor of love to work on this project over the past 15 months. I have learned a lot more about the life and work of this fascinating scientist. More importantly, from this point forward, articles on Beard's many accomplishments will be available to all scientists and medical historians through the PubMed index. This special issue will pop up whenever anyone searches for information about trophoblasts and cancer, their relationship to germ or stem cells, or the enzyme treatment of cancer. It will no longer be possible for scholars in the field to plead ignorance about the contribution of this founding father of integrative medicine. John Beard, a figure who hailed from deep inside the 19^th century, thus enters the 21^st century in a major way.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK WITH REFERENCES..

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

WHERE TO GO? - CAM RESOURCES BY REGION

The Where To Go? series continues to attract favorable reviews from readers. Already available are Where To Go? - Houston, Where To Go? - Philadelphia, Where To Go? - Chicago and Where To Go? - Boston. These are the first reports in a series on regional availability of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

For more information, or to purchase any of these reports, please click here.

PHONE CONSULTATIONS

Last week we received the following comment from a phone consultation client:

"I recently talked with Dr. Moss by phone about the options I can still pursue. I have a rare (and thus, poorly researched or understood) cancer, now in stage IV, that is unresponsive to standard medical treatments. Fortunately, my health and well-being are still good, after more than two years of active medical treatment, judiciously applied, and alternative treatments used during the past year.

"Dr. Moss spent a generous amount of time both listening and offering suggestions during our conversation. He told me about several exciting treatment options outside the US as well as what might prove to be more practical options available inside the US and/or within my part of the country. He offered several ideas for trying to negotiate partial coverage by my insurance company or for contacting others who had pursued some of the options he told me about. We discussed promising supplements and the best way to get proper guidance for using them.

"Dr. Moss had website or phone contact information at the ready to share with me, and offered to provide additional support by e-mail if needed. He invited me to remain in contact as I decided which option(s) to pursue and undertook efforts to pursue them. He was warm, encouraging, and thoughtful, and helped me to see the pluses in my situation, not just the challenges. I am now in the process of working with my doctors and my insurance company to see which of the options that he and I discussed will prove most viable for me. I'm extremely grateful for Dr. Moss's expertise, insight, and support at a challenging time in my life. I have a renewed sense of hope and possibility, and many new avenues to pursue as a result of consulting with him.

"It's wonderful that cancer patients have Dr. Moss himself, the books he has written, and the many reports he has created, as resources. Many cancer patients need to think beyond standard American medical care, because it does not provide much hope for their unique situation. Like me, many cancer patients are also willing and able to pursue lifestyle changes and various complementary or alternative strategies on their own behalf, and are eager to have some say in their own health and well-being and the treatment decisions they face. There is so much information out there, however, some of it misleading or ineffective, and only so much time in which to investigate the possibilities or try available remedies. It's important, therefore, to have help and support in sorting through the options and choosing as wisely as possible, especially since many doctors have little awareness of alternatives and little time or energy to help patients pursue them. The resources Dr. Moss provides are an invaluable supplement to standard medical care and a source of added hope and possibility for cancer patients and their families. I'm glad to recommend them." - R. K. October 24^th 2008

Clients who have purchased a Moss Report can schedule an appointment for a phone consultation by calling 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US) or by submitting a request via email to Jacquie@cancerdecisions.com.

CANCER DECISIONS© AND CURRENT TOPICS© REPORTS

Reports in our Cancer Decisions© series are designed to provide readers with the detailed information they need in order to make difficult treatment decisions. Currently available are: :

• Radiation and the Treatment of Breast Cancer
• Antioxidants and Cancer Treatment (Combination report)
• Do Antioxidants Interfere with Radiation Treatment for Cancer?
• Overcoming the Adverse Effects of Radiation Therapy
• Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer
• Radiation Therapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
• Radiation Therapy for Gynecological Cancers

These reports can be purchased and downloaded from our Web site, by clicking here.

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

The news and other items in this newsletter are intended for informational purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.

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